E-mobility is one of the most relevant trends on the commercial vehicle market, which is driven by two major factors:
• To protect the environment, especially the atmosphere by zero emission
• To decrease the Total Cost of Ownership of a vehicle
Since kinetic energy can not be fully regenerated even at electric vehicles, decreasing gross weight is the viable way, which helps to reach both the above goals. A lighter vehicle needs less amount of batteries, which is a direct cost decrease, moreover the batteries’ manufacturing and recycling consumes less energy and emits also less pollutant. The electric vehicles’ market is rapidly changing, new technologies and respectively suppliers emerge and traditional ones lose their importance and market share. Despite of the very turbulent technological changes, electric commercial vehicles’ components are still mostly based on the established diesel value chain. Currently there are no critical components available, which would be required by the designers of light weight commercial vehicles. Typical example of this situation is the axle system of city buses. While a 12.7 solo bus, carrying 95 passengers weights currently 18 ton in total, the same amount of passengers can theoretically be transported by a 13 ton composite bus. While an 18-19 ton electric bus requires a 12-13 ton rear electric axle, a 13 ton electric bus needs only 8.5-9 ton at its rear. Problem is that there is no such an axle on the market, which causes a chicken and egg situation. Since still there are no 13 ton weight vehicles, there is no 8.5 ton electric axle available and because there are no 8.5 ton electric axles, no manufacturer could reach the 13 ton gross weight so far.
Goal of the project is to develop an electric axle for 8.5 ton load and introduce it on the market.
The project’s societal importance can be formulated as follows:
Electric power train is the key element for every electric vehicle. The rationale of the project is to provide a leading edge technology for:
• Bus and other commercial vehicle manufacturers, to increase their competitiveness on the world market, by decreasing their vehicles’ total cost.
• Bus operators, to decrease their operation costs (a lighter vehicle consumes less energy)
• Cities, to provide an environment friendly, high passenger comfort service at lower cost
The project’s overall objectives are:
• To develop and test the 8.5 ton electric axle, install it in vehicles
• Introduce the product into the market
• Transform Silex from a small company, to a medium sized, technology oriented organisation, which is active on the world market
